If you ignore the mindless tittle-tattle, David Miliband’s New Statesman article raises a genuine issue: what should be the left’s attitude to the state? Although this is seen as “Blairite” it is also consistent with a more radical leftist tradition of scepticism about big government is a longstanding tradition on the left such as guild socialism, anarchism, market socialis...

One of the most colourful figures in the history of Irish socialism, Gerry Lawless, who has died in London, made legal history by taking the first case heard at the European Court of Human Rights. It was against his internment during the 1950s. He was the first citizen of any European country to take legal action against a government and, though he lost, he set an important precedent. Gerald ...

Tristram Hunt, the historian and Labour MP, has written a brilliant rebuttal to my piece in the Telegraph last week, in which I said that capitalism is hardwired in Britain’s DNA. Socialism, he says, is also hardwired into our country’s mindset. Writing for Comment Is Free, he says: ‘There is another story of Britishness a long way from the template of Cameron and the Spectator. ...

Or should I use the more obvious word? It is a tradition of redistribution, intervention and socialism equally as compelling as Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” (which, one should remember, was a satirical attack on laissez-faire morality, drawn from Shakespeare’s Macbeth). It’s got bugger all to do with laissez faire morality. It’s about how the merchant

The sad death of Janey Buchan at the age of 85 brought back a lot of good memories and provoked a few reflections on the current state of left-wing politics in Scotland and beyond, for Janey and her late husband Norman really did represent the best of a political tradition that has now almost expired. Theirs was a humane and practical form of socialism founded in the great struggles of their youth...

I link a lot to the sayings and doings of Steve Baker MP (that being the last time I mentioned him here), so this time I will be brief, and only say that I like the phrase "new money being loaned into existence". The piece this phrase appears in is entitled Could this be a second crisis of state socialism? If you are already saying to yourself something along the lines of: "yes I rather...

By Noah Tucker, from 21st Century Socialism One of the most insightful analyses- and certainly the most hilarious- of the emerging power relationships in the European Union can be found in a three minute video which recently appeared on YouTube. It is a spoof of ‘Dinner for One’, the English comedy sketch which is almost

Battling for attention ahead of their first election showdown, leading Republican presidential candidates have taken turns accusing one another and President Barack Obama of 'European socialism' and opposing further US financial help for the struggling eurozone. More »

It is no secret that my ideas of centre right Welsh Nationalism are directly opposed to Leanne Wood's Socialism and Republicanism. As I have repeated ad-nausium on this blog socialism is dependent on the state, the state on which Wales now depends is the British state; until we throw off the shackles of state control Wales can never be free! Republicanism is a British obsession. An independent

Romney may have just lost the election for the Republicans. If he is going to stand behind Individual Mandate, then why not vote for a real socialist? Why not just let someone who walks the walk drive things to their disastrous conclusion rather than allowing the left to point to a 'conservative' and blame the failures of socialism on him? If it is a given that Romney will be the Republi...